The Headright System and Indentured Servitude

The Headright System and Indentured Servitude

Headright System 1618 Introduced by the Virginia Stock Company to lure settlers to Jamestown System applied to any person who paid for their own or another's passage to Virginia would receive 50 acres of land Land grants were initially called “plantations” How do you think this would affect immigration?

Fantasies of the New World Playwrights, poets, adventurers Many had never seen the New World Turned reports into fantasies of “promised land” Told tales of fair climate, friendly natives, rich harvests, etc.

The Beautiful New World 1605 play in London depicting Native children who wore rubies and diamonds in their coats and caps 1606 English poet Michael Drayton called Virginia “that delicious land” rich in soil with fantastic harvests 1607 Virginia Company translates into advertisements

Joint Stock Advertisement How did Joint Stock Companies take advantage of the positive publicity being printed about life in the colonies?

Indentured Servants From England hired to work plantations Promised passage to North America as well as food and shelter upon arrival Exchanged for a limited time of servitude Usually 4-7 years Lower classes of English society

House of Burgesses First legislature of elected representatives in the English colonies (Democratic Gov) How democratic was it? Who do you think was allowed to vote? Who was not? Established to encourage settlement in Virginia Nathaniel Bacon was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1676

Bacons Rebellion 1676 About 1,000 Virginians broke out of control led by Bacon Many of the rebels were frontiersmen in search of arable land Resented Governor William Berkeley’s friendly policies towards the Natives What is one possible reason why the Governor and the Natives had a positive relationship?

Bacons Rebellion 1676 Violence broke out when Berkeley refused to retaliate for a series of brutal Native attacks on the frontier settlements Bacon and his followers violently attacked Natives both friendly and hostile Rebels chase Berkeley out and torched Jamestown How do you think that the average settlers in Jamestown felt following Bacons Rebellion?

Bacons Rebellion 1676 Bacon died suddenly of disease Berkeley brutally crushes the uprising Rebellion suppressed What kinds of problems do you foresee occurring following Bacon’s Rebellion?